The Doctrine of Christ

Section X—THE MEDIATORIAL WORK OF CHRIST

LESSON THIRTY-ONE Christ the Mediator in the Original Creation

1. All revelation of God has been mediated through his Son. Matthew 11:27. TDOC 81.1

2. Christ is the mediating agent through whom the Father expresses himself. 1 Corinthians 8:6. TDOC 81.2

3. All things came into being through the mediatorial agency of the Word who became flesh. John 1:3; Psalm 33:6, 9; 148:5; Hebrews 1:2; John 1:10, ARV. TDOC 81.3

4. Christ is the mediatorial agent both in the creation and in the administration of the material universe. Colossians 1:16, 17; Hebrews 1:3. TDOC 81.4

5. Christ, the wisdom of God, was with the Father in creation as the master workman. Proverbs 8:27-30, ARV. TDOC 81.5

NOTES: The eternal Son

“The thought of mediation becomes necessary as soon as from the absolute thought of God we pass to the related thought of creation, and the Bible revelation distinctly attaches that mediation to the person of the eternal Son, in respect alike of the works of creation, of administration, and of redemption.” TDOC 81.6

“The standing truth that, from the first instant of creation there has been a mediator between the Father and creation, one through whom, necessarily, creation came into being, renders it easier for us to apprehend alike the necessity, and (such is the love of God) the probability, of an atoning mediator who should undo the mischief of sin; and, this being so, the impossibility that it can be any other than the uncreated Mediator, through whom and for whom were all things made, the eternal Son.” TDOC 81.7

Mediator defined!

“We use the term mediator, as esteemed theological writers have done before, in its strictly proper and derivative meaning of ‘one who is a means of intercourse between two other parties, and through whom action passes from either to other,’ a meaning much wider than its too commonly restricted application to Christ as the atoning and reconciling mediator between man, as fallen and sinful, and God his Maker. Mediation in this latter sense, as exercised by the eternal Son, however especially necessary and unspeakably precious, is still a part of a larger whole. It is a special function of a larger office, a result of a wider mediatorial relation in which he stands to sinless as well as to fallen natures, indeed, to all created existence.” TDOC 81.8

The eternal Son the medium of God’s action

“In places where, the work of creation is alluded to passively, as in John 1:10 (The world was made by him, rather, The world came into being through him), the impression conveyed to an English reader is that of exact equivalence to ‘he made the world,’ whereas, in reality, they express the means rather than the primary originating cause. But we see clearly that wherever anything further is said of the work of creation, beyond the primary truth that it was the act of God as an almighty personal agent, the, eternal Son is revealed as the medium of his action, the invariable and the sole medium, without whom was not anything made that was made. John 1:3.” TDOC 82.1

The mediating Word

“He is called the Word of God as mediating between the Father and all creatures; bringing them into being, fashioning them, giving the world its laws, imparting reason and conscience to creatures of a higher order, and revealing to them in due season the knowledge of God’s will.” TDOC 82.2

The invisible power

“He is the invisible power behind all the forms and forces of the world of sense. He waters the mountains from his chambers, sends forth springs into the valleys, causes the grass to grow, and plants the cedars of Lebanon. Psalm 104. His voice thunders in the heavens, the clouds are his pavilion, the lightning are his arrows, the stormy winds and tempests that move earth and sea are but the blasts of the breath of his nostrils, the foundations of the mountains quake at his presence. Psalm 18.” TDOC 82.3

A loss to Christian theology

“We cannot but think that Christian theology has lost, both in breadth and depth and height, from the general absence of sufficient appreciation of these far-reaching and pregnant truths; and from the customary restriction of the idea of mediation on the part of the Son of God to his redeeming work for man as fallen.” TDOC 82.4

Life and light are mediated

No created mind has immediate and independent knowledge of, or access to, the great Source of life. All must be alike indebted for whatever measure of light they have, whether on the highest or lowest subjects of thought, to the mediation of the Son of God.” TDOC 82.5